Photo: Ella Rozett

The story of this shrine in the Auvergne begins with a stone, a Druidic altar stone, a dolmen. In the third century A.D., Mother Mary appeared in a vision to a widow who was stricken with a terrible fever. She told the poor woman to go up to Mount Anis, which had been holy ground since time immemorial and was dedicated to a pre-Christian goddess. There she was to lay on this dolmen in order to be healed. The woman obeyed, laid down her illness on that stone and got up healed. Henceforth that stone has been called the Fever Stone.

Then Mary told the widow that she wanted a church built in her honor on that holy hill of the goddess.

When Saint George, first bishop of the area, heard what had happened, he went to see that miracle stone for himself. It was the middle of July, but when he reached the hill it was covered with snow and a stag ran, tracing in the snow the plan for a sanctuary including the stone. The bishop knew it wouldn't be built very soon and so he outlined the stag's steps with a row of dry, thorny branches. The next day they were all found blooming.

In spite of such great miracles nothing more was undertaken to comply with the wishes of the Mother of God. (I suppose the Church and the Druids didn't feel as comfortable about mingling their holy sites and ritual objects as Heaven would have them do.) So Mary had to wait patiently. After two centuries she figured it was time to remind her children of her wish. When a paralytic laid down on the Fever Stone and rose from it healed the Virgin reiterated her desire for a sanctuary that would contain the stone.

Now the bishop of the area went to Rome to ask permission of the Pope for such a "completely exceptional thing" (see: website of the diocese of Le Puy) as to build a church around a Druidic stone and also to move his bishop's seat onto the pagan holy hill, thereby clearly claiming it for Christianity. Permission was granted and the building completed in 430 A.D. Now the bishop turned again towards Rome in order to obtain all that was needed for the consecration, including relics. But the Virgin basically told him that she didn't need Rome (though Rome needed her). She sent two angels to bring the bishop and his companion back home. The angels appeared in the form of two old men who gave the bishop the necessary relics and said, "Go back to Anis; we will go ahead of you and take care of everything." With that they disappeared into thin air. When the bishop reached the church, he found it bathed in an other-worldly light and the bells ringing on their own. That's why it is said that the church was consecrated by angels.

The Fever Stone was behind the high altar for a long time, then moved outside, near the entrance, only to be brought back inside in 1998.

Not a trace is left of the first Mary statue installed in the original cathedral of Le Puy. According to tradition the one on the facing page was given to the sanctuary, by King St. Louis IX. Others say it was the gift of some unknown crusader in the 12th century. The faithful maintain that a certain Jeremiah sculpted her, some insist the Prophet Jeremiah, others a Coptic monk by that name. In any case, they say that the Lady became a treasure of the Grand Sultan of Babylon, ruler of Egypt, who gave her to a French king during the Crusades.

In the Revolutionary year 1794 Our Lady was burnt like a witch on an execution pyre in the public square to cries of, "Down with the Egyptian!" Luckily a certain Faujas de Saint-Fons had created a detailed drawing and description of her in 1777, after which this replica was sculpted. In his opinion we are looking at a very ancient statue of Isis and Horus, which the eyes of Catholic faith see as Mary and Jesus.

This Lady now resides in the beautiful Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament because another Black Virgin took her place behind the high altar after her execution.